The invention concerns a holder for an electronic detection element adapted to be attached by means of a band around the neck or around a different part of the body of an animal to be detected.
It is necessary for electronic identification that the object to be identified is provided with a detection element, sometimes referred to as responder. Such an element is disclosed e.g. in Dutch patent application No. 77,11891 of applicants, or their corresponding British patent No. 1,577,920.
It is conventional to embed such a detection element in a synthetic plastics holder, which is attached to a collar the two ends of which are subsequently buckled together. It is necessary now that the holder with the detection element always hangs in approximately the same place, preferably at the bottom of the neck of the animal, so that when the animal approaches the detection antenna, it will always bring the detection element at a predictable distance, at least within the range of the transceiver, in order to be identified with certainty. In practice, the holder with the detection element should have a given weight in order to be kept through gravity at the bottom of the neck of the animal. The weight of the holder with the detection element competes with the weight of the buckle often present at the top of the neck of the animal. In order to remain at the bottom of the neck, the holder with detection element should therefore have so much weight that the loosely fitting collar will not turn around the neck of the animal. This has resulted in rather heavy and voluminous holders, which, due to their volume, reached the required weight for compensating the counterweight of the buckle, but which became at the same time unnecessarily sensitive, due to their dimensions, to external damage caused by congeners of the animal or due to their being caught behind obstacles with which the animal comes into contact unconsciously or precisely very consciously in order to get rid of itching.
The miniaturization of the identification systems has meanwhile progressed to the extent that the last generation of detection elements have dimensions and weights that are a fraction of the versions hitherto conventional. It may then be considered to attach such a detection element in a different place in or on the body of the animal. Most of the animals to be identified, however, will keep their collars, even if such a different attachment place is possible, since one will wish to recognize the animal electronically but also visually, which is possible by applying a name and/or number on or about the collar.
If therefore, even though it is technically possible to install the detection element elsewhere, perhaps with a different, more expensive method, the animals will yet continue to wear collars in large numbers, it is advantageous to use said collar to install the miniaturized detection elements in a simple manner.
If the dimensions of the detection element are reduced from e.g. about 150.times.60.times.25 mm to about 60.times.35.times.12 mm or less in the near future, the problem of maintaining the detection element at the bottom of the neck of the animal will be felt more strongly, since the competing weight of the buckle on top of the neck will not or not appreciably decrease, while precisely the total weight of the detection element with the associated holder will strongly decrease.